News tagged with natural oils

New graphene discovery boosts oil exploration efforts, could enable self-powered microsensors

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new method to harvest energy from flowing water. This discovery aims to hasten the creation of self-powered microsensors for ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Jul 19, 2011 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (8) | comments 8 | with audio podcast

Greenhouse solar plant for cheaper extraction of oil

(PhysOrg.com) -- A Californian company has found a way to reduce the cost of making steam for use in extracting oil from old oil fields: they heat the water using free sunlight.

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Mar 02, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (6) | comments 6 | with audio podcast report

Thousands of birds found dead on Chile beaches

About 2,000 birds were found dead on beaches in central Chile, a natural history museum director said Friday, accusing fishermen of snagging them in their nets and letting them drown.

Biology / Ecology

created May 12, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 5

End to cheap coal closer than we thought?

(PhysOrg.com) -- A report entitled "The End of Cheap Coal," published in the journal Nature by Richard Heinberg and David Fridley, suggests we may reach peak coal in the next two decades.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Nov 22, 2010 | popularity 4 / 5 (16) | comments 33 | with audio podcast report

Professors argue flattening oil production should trump environment as reason to move to alternative sources

(PhysOrg.com) -- Two university professors, one from the School of Oceanography at the University of Washington in Seattle, the other from Oxford, have published an opinion piece in the journal Nature, where ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jan 26, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (25) | comments 41 | with audio podcast report

NREL catalyst brings drop-in fuels closer

We live in a petroleum-based society, and the oil we use comes from plants that were buried eons ago and changed under pressure and high temperatures. As countries across the globe face dwindling oil supplies ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Apr 12, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Study sharpens picture of how much oil and gas flowed in Deepwater Horizon spill

(PhysOrg.com) -- In a detailed assessment of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, researchers led by a team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have determined that the blown-out Macondo well ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Sep 05, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (4) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Genome sequence of mesopolyploid crop Brassica rapa could improve important agricultural crops

An international team of scientists has sequenced the genome of a Chinese cabbage variety of a plant called Brassica rapa, a close relative of oilseed rape. The research, which is published today (28 August) in the journa ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Aug 28, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

One Sponge-Like Material, Three Different Applications

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new sponge-like material that is black, brittle and freeze-dried (just like the ice cream astronauts eat) can pull off some pretty impressive feats. Designed by Northwestern University chemists, it can ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created May 26, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (9) | comments 3

Study reveals how gas, temperature controlled bacterial response to Deepwater Horizon spill

In a new study, UC Santa Barbara scientists explain how they used DNA to identify microbes present in the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and how they identified the microbes responsible ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Oct 03, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Protecting wild species may require growing more food on less land: study

In parts of the world still rich in biodiversity, separating natural habitats from high-yielding farmland could be a more effective way to conserve wild species than trying to grow crops and conserve nature on the same land, ...

Biology / Ecology

created Sep 01, 2011 | popularity 2.3 / 5 (3) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Natural Oils Can Be Hydrogenated Without Making Unhealthy Trans Fats

(PhysOrg.com) -- To prolong the shelf life of foods, manufacturers often add hydrogen to natural oils, a process called hydrogenation. But hydrogenation also results in the production of trans fats, which have adverse health ...

Chemistry /

created Jan 23, 2009 | popularity 3.4 / 5 (7) | comments 0

Crude oil no longer needed for plastics

Each year the world produces about 130 million kilo of ethene, the most important raw material for plastics. This gigantic industry is currently dependent on crude oil. And that is running out. Dutch researcher Tymen Tiemersma ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Mar 30, 2010 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (20) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Sugar battles oil spills

The environment has often suffered from the catastrophic effects of an oil spill, the most recent example being the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The search for ways to remove oil from polluted water is ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Aug 12, 2010 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (17) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Blueprint from the interior of a catalyst

Irregularities in industrial catalysts can inhibit the conversion of crude oil, Utrecht University chemists have concluded. They were the first to provide a detailed blueprint of the interior of a commercially used catalyst ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Sep 22, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0